Case Heard On Election Of Judges

The outcome could ultimately affect the makeup of state courts across the South, where blacks win judicial elections in numbers far smaller than their proportion of the electorate.

Forty-one states elect at least some of their judges, and lower courts throughout the country have disagreed over whether the Voting Rights Act applies to these elections.

The issue came before the court on Monday in two cases from Texas and Louisiana, where black and Hispanic voters unsuccessfully challenged the makeup of trial and appellate courts.

Both states are within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which ruled last September that the Voting Rights Act does not apply to judicial elections. The Bush administration joined the plaintiffs in urging the justices to overturn that ruling.

The law, enacted in 1965, was generally thought to bar discrimination in judicial elections as well as in elections for legislative and executive offices. The confusion came with a 1982 amendment that Congress adopted to overturn a restrictive Supreme Court interpretation of the law.

The court ruled in 1980 that a central provision of the law, Section 2, barred only intentional discrimination. Congress rewrote Section 2 to make it clear that the law could be used to challenge a districting plan or other electoral provision that had the effect of diluting minority voting strength, without the need to prove intent.

The new Section 2 provides that a violation can be proven with evidence that, because of race, some members of the electorate ``have less opportunity that other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice.``

In its 7-6 ruling last fall, the 5th Circuit said the new Section 2 did not apply to judges because judges are not ``representatives.``

OTHER ACTION

The Supreme Court on Monday also:

-- Agreed to hear the appeal of a Nebraska farmer convicted of receiving government-mailed ``kid porn,`` setting up a key test of undercover sting operations. The justices said they would decide whether Keith Jacobson unlawfully was entrapped by Postal Service investigators who, posing as pornographers, repeatedly mailed him offers until he accepted one.

-- Let stand rulings that force Connecticut officials to negotiate with the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe over the tribe`s desire to operate a gambling casino on its reservation, as do some 75 tribes in 20 states.

-- Agreed to use a case from Mississippi to consider limiting the ability of states and cities to shield consumers by deeming as imprudent the huge expenses electric companies incur in building nuclear power plants.

-- Left intact a $175,000 libel award a prosecutor won against a Covington, Ky., newspaper in 1985.